Compare the Use of Verbal Wit in the Wife of Bath and the Rivals

Compare the use of verbal wit in The Wife of Bath and The Rivals.

Both novels contain clear use of verbal wit from both characters. The Wife of Bath herself is a clear form of verbal wit because she uses her place in society to make the audience laugh during the prologue. The Rivals also contains a character similar to the wife in Mrs Malaprop. Someone who is proud of tradition and can be seen as a pantomime character, somebody who is there to make you laugh. In comparison, both the Wife and Mrs Malaprop can be seen as humorous characters who use verbal wit to solve their issues.

Verbal wit itself can be seen as a strong weapon throughout the Wife of Bath. It can be seen as a strong weapon against the teaching of the church in religion. During the 1400’s, the church was seen as the way life should be led. The churches values were the highest values and everybody obeyed them. One of the churches highest values was that you should only marry once. The wife reveals she has been married five times. “ Housbondes at chirche dore I have had fyve” This would traditionally go against the church. However she argues this with the argument that Solomon had 1000 wives. “ Lo, heere the wise kyng, daun Salomon, I trowe he hadde wyves mo than oon” She deliberately uses examples like this to outwit the church, but crucially she never judges the church. This shows that she is using verbal wit to go against the traditions of the church. In contrast to this, Mrs Malaprop is very strict in keeping with tradition. Similar to the wife, Mrs Malaprop uses wit as a strong weapon for tradition. As a result she is a firm believer in arranged marriages. We know this for two reasons. One she tries to force Lydia to marry Captain Jack Absolute, something Lydia is opposed to. Secondly we know she was married into an arranged marriage. “ I hated your poor dear Uncle before marriage” The word before can be seen as a sign of acceptance after the marriage. Despite this she still stuck to traditional ways. Both characters therefore use verbal wit to explain their place in society and their differing views on women and traditional values.

Humour is something that runs throughout both texts. Again it is present in both the Wife and Mrs Malaprop. In the Wife of Bath however, we also see humour in the form of the Pardoner. In line 187 of the Wife’s prologue, the Pardoner is quoted as saying “And teche us yonge men of youre praktike” The use of us is talking about men everywhere and can be seen as a sarcastic joke implying that the Wife knows everything that needs to be known about sex and marriage. These men still believe in the beliefs of the church as they are on a pilgrimage.  We know there is a sense of humour from the Wife also as in line 192 the wife distinctly says “For myn entente nys but for to pleye.” Translated this means “my intention is to only amuse” This shows that the Wife does this intentionally. In comparison, this is similar to Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals. She continues to muddle her words. In Act 3 scene III she declares to Jack Absolute if I reprehend any thing in this world it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs. She selects words so ingeniously misapplied, without being mispronounced. On the blurb of the book, Mrs Malaprop is described as “the queen of the dictionary” which can show that she does this on purpose to add to the comedic feel to the play.  Both texts therefore portray hints of comedic elements through different characters.